When Heroes Rise
by Glitch32
Summary: With no signs of the Avatar returning, hope for the end of the Fire Nation's tyranny is grim. The Fire Nation's biggest success has been in the northwest Earth Kingdom, and village after village is falling or submitting. Hope is bleak, but one group of young rebels have decided to fight back. To prove to the Fire Nation that they will not go down without a fight.
1. When Disaster Strikes

Greetings, FF community! This is a four-chapter fic written as part of a series of fics I have developed filling in what happened in Jet's life from the time his village was taken up until the series takes place. In this series is also my torture!fic, Driving Force. I'm not writing in any order when it comes to the stories in the series, so don't expect a continuation of this story right after it. I might hop around in the series. (There are six scheduled stories in the series.) Also, I have already written this entire story, I've just got to go through a proof read it. I'll be posting the chapters up here as I finish doing so.

Hope you enjoy, please review if you like it: that's what motivates me to keep writing. :)

* * *

Three children-no, three young heroes were fanned out through the autumn forest, pursuing their prey. They were as far apart as they could get while still staying within each others' line of sight. All three were sprinting, hastily yet quietly maneuvering through the forest, which they obviously had much experience doing. Determination was pushing them to their goal as their faces portrayed their focus, only looking ahead. The girl of the group, only eleven, flowed between the thick barricade of trees, the blades of both her daggers gliding around the trees so close, yet not skimming the bark as to not leave a trail. One of the young men, fourteen, carried a bow made from what he could gather in the forest. As he sprinted across the brush-covered forest floor, the precision of every step he took proved that he knew every inch of the area. Their leader, the one charging forth slightly ahead of the other two, carried two hookswords. He knew the forest like the back of his hand as he avoided every stumbling block, every trap, every root, even when the obstacles were covered by the brush of the forest.

They continued charging forward until their leader suddenly stopped, lifting a hand. They all froze, silent... listening. Their pursuit had been so disguised and masked that when they stopped, there wasn't a slightest difference in the natural sounds of the forest. The leader pointed forward as he and the girl slowly knelt down. The oldest boy grabbed his bow, drew an arrow, and with a only second of aim, released the string.

A horrendous squeal was released from the target as a boarcupine fell onto its side, squirming and kicking until its energy faded away, its life leaving its body.

"Mm, dinner!" the girl popped out of the brush, rubbing her hands together.

"Good shot, Sneers." The young leader complimented the archer. He walked up to the kill as the archer removed his arrow and stood up to face his companion.

"Thanks, Jet."

* * *

The light of day began to fade away and the forest became bleak in color. Darkness enshrouded the looming trees across the entire land... save a small area illuminated by the orange light of a campfire. The trio had hauled their game back to their setup in the brush and were roasting it over the flame. The oldest of the group was consistently rotating the meat over the fire to ensure its even roast, while the girl hovered over their leader as he monologued, pointing all over a map.

"We won't be able to stop their full forces when they leave the town, but we can at least do some damage along the way. They'll exit on the southeast side of the town and enter our forest here," the leader said while pointing out a path.

"What if they go west instead though?" the girl interjected.

"Smellerbee, we have reliable information and only a week to prepare; we need to focus all our efforts on slowing them down and doing as much damage as we can along the trail."

The little girl pointed to the route in question. "Yeah, but if we go to all this trouble to prepare this path and they don't end up taking it, there's not much of a point."

"Look." He said as he handed Smellerbee a piece of paper. "This is from Jin Li. He overheard some soldiers discussing the plan in the town."

While reading through Jin Li's note she spotted patches of information scattered across that seemed convince her. Her eyes scrolled across the sheet until they suddenly focused on a piece of circled intel.

_**120.**_

Her eyes widened. "Jet!" She gasped as she tightened her grip on the paper and reached a hand down to the log she was sitting on to help herself up quickly. "They're sending a hundred and twenty?!"

"What?!" exclaimed the oldest, who had been contentedly listening to the conversation while preparing their dinner from across the campfire. "How are we supposed to handle a hundred and twenty armed soldiers?!"

"Calm down, guys," Jet told them. "We don't have the force to take them all out, obviously. But as they're traveling we can follow behind them and take out the soldiers in the back, hopefully not alerting the rest of the crew until we're through with them."

"And if we _do_ get caught?" Smellerbee asked, nervous.

"We retreat. They'll go off the path into the forest if we lead them out, then-"

"Then what? We can't escape an army of Fire Nation Soldiers, even if we can outrun them! They'll track us down to wherever we go!" The panic in Smellerbee's voice echoed through the trees.

"That's why we go up," Jet said, pointing into a tree. Above them was a hideout made of wooden planks, wires, and a vast variety of pillaged Fire Nation material. The entire hideout had a layer of leaves beneath it, hiding it from any threat below. "This is _our_ forest. If we go off the trail, of course they can track us. But if we go up, they can't track that. That's why we've got to spend the next week focusing on getting a pathway set up through the trees that follows the trail to the city. We can come down behind the group and take out a small number of them, then flee into the woods. By the time we're out of sight, we'll be in the trees ready to attack again when they regroup and move on."

The other two were deep in thought. It sounded like a good plan, and while there was still an element of danger involved, it was a war, and war is dangerous. They were only kids... but they knew it was their job to play their part in the ongoing fight. The Fire Nation had captured the town north of their hideout roughly fourteen months ago, and since then, the trio had been ambushing small squads of incoming and outgoing enemy troops and cargo when they could. They were only children, but they did what they could.

Word had been spreading throughout the region that the Fire Nation was going to ship in a small army of troops to the town north of Jet's hideout, and march southwest through the forest to a trading village to take it over. When the trio heard the rumor, they began evaluating the situation, confirming suspicions and brainstorming their plan of attack. Now, it was time to take action.

"Seven days," Jet said, marking out a line alongside the path through the forest. "We've got a lot to do."

* * *

- Four Days Later -

The layer of darkness blanketed across the forest was about to be broken by the morning light. The leaves were covered in dew and the trio was deep in slumber in their hidden fort amongst the thick leaves. Each of them had constructed a room for themselves, all three of which connected to a central area with a makeshift table taking center stage. It was quite a complex tree house the children had made for themselves, and its construction never really had an end. It was an ongoing project; a massive hideout in the trees hidden from those below.

Jet awoke first as he always did, startled up by the nightmares of five years prior. His past haunted him whether he was awake or asleep. He never could doze for long, but it was almost convenient since he needed to be up before the rest of the crew. He rose out of his bed, if you could call a pile of leaves a bed, and stretched in the darkness of his room. The birds that surrounded their fort had begun to sing their joyful morning songs. It was time to start another long day of hard work.

Jet pulled back the blanket covering his doorway and walked out toward their newest construction: a narrow pathway of planks endlessly extending from their home base. They had been building this pathway for the past four days, following close by the trail below. Every so often they would drop a rope down, hidden in a convenient location, to pull themselves up with. And today was just like any other day... time to continue building. Jet started his walk down the pathway through the treetops. Sneers and Smellerbee would join him soon enough, but he liked starting his days in solitude. Thus, he headed for the end of the path to continue construction.

As he walked, his mind wandered through the events of his past. The memories of his village being raided and his parents being brutally murdered before him overflowed in flashes before his eyes. He walked on for a ages, his goal nowhere in sight, and as he continued down the path he let the memories overtake him. He could see the past before his eyes: an orange glow of the raging fire which ate away at his entire village. He nearly felt its heat when...

_Crack!_

His foot descended. A board he stepped on broke and his entire left leg fell through. His other thigh slammed down on the remaining platform, saving him from the fall below with the help of his arms grasping tightly to anything they could once the recognition of what was happening blasted into his mind. Startled but not hurt significantly, he pulled himself back up, snapping out of his memories. He hadn't seen the fire of his past; the sun was finally rising. The orange morning rays dashed and sparkled through the forest, spots of light and shadows splattering themselves over every surface. Jet took a sigh, stood up, and continued on. He walked through the glistening morning, spots of dew now rolling off the leaves as the heat of the sun warmed the forest.

Jet's concept of time faded away as he walked, all things blurring together into his monotonous morning. Suddenly, though, the peaceful serenity of the morning was shattered by a panicked scream.

"Jet!"

It was Smellerbee's voice coming from the fort. He turned around, panicked, and charged towards their home. The closer he got to the fort the stranger things seemed, but he couldn't stop. Nothing indicated there was a struggle going on, but he continued hearing his name called. Then the fort came into view: nothing out of the ordinary. He couldn't imagine what it was. He slowed his pace as he got to the central meeting area and looked around. He heard clanging metal from behind Sneer's room: the weapons stockpile. He ran over to see his two teammates packing their bags as quickly as they could: Sneers stocking his quiver, Smellerbee sheathing her knives.

"Jet!" Smellerbee exclaimed, relieved he finally arrived. She threw him an empty satchel.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"We're too late," grunted Sneers.

"What?!"

"Jin Li came by." Sneers remained focused on his work while spitting out what he could. "The troops left last night from the west exit. They're probably at the town by now."

Jet started stuffing his bag.

"You got a plan?" Smellerbee shouted as Jet ran to his room to grab his swords.

"Working on it," he replied. "Sneers, how many berry bombs did you end up with last week?"

"Perfect," Sneers mumbled to himself, smirking as he remembered his creation. He shouted back. "Couple hundred. They're in the explosives room in a bowl. Make sure to pack them gently."

Jet hopped over to the next room from his. He walked in to see boxes packed with leaves stacked all around. He found the bowl with the new invention on top of a box near the center of the room. It was filled with small circular explosives wrapped in berry skin. One alone couldn't do much damage, but craftily planted in the enemy's armor, a handful could take out a soldier's spine in a heartbeat.

"They explode on impact," Sneers shouted to him. "And if one goes off too close to the others they'll all go off. Don't drop them."

The three hurried with their packing. Sneers grabbed a map and rushed out to their center table and rolled it open. It was quite detailed and mapped a very concise area.

"Alright here's the plan," Jet shouted to the others, carefully placed the berries in his bag. "We're going with a full on evacuation plan. Avoid the troops as much as you can and we'll get as many civilians out of the town as possible."

"What side do we want to come in from, Jet?" Sneers shouted as his eyes scrolled across the map. Jet peeked out of the explosives room to see he had the map out.

"Northeast; mark out a good path. Each trip in and out of the town we'll move entry and exit points towards the east until we circle around to the southern entrance."

"Where do I put the rendezvous point, Platform 15?"

"Platform 15," the words came out of both boys' mouths simultaneous, one a question, one an answer. "It's directly east of the town. It'll be a good, common place to drop the villagers."

"Bee, come look." Sneers barked the other direction. He used charcoal to mark a path coming down and over from their forest to the northeast corner of the town as he waited for her to join him. When she came over he ran her through the plan. "We'll go in here," he said pointing to the first spot, "and bring the first wave of villagers out to you. You'll run them to the rendezvous point here," he circled a red dot east of the city, not terribly far, "then you meet us at the second exit point for the second wave of survivors. Got it?"

Jet jogged up quickly, gently swinging the satchel over his shoulder. "Make sure to avoid leaving a trail. If you're being tracked, take them out."

They looked over the plan one last time, then exchanged a serious look with a nod.

"Let's go."

Three children, young yet cunning. They set off through the forest, weaving their way through the brush. They had to get there in time. If another massacre happened like the one they were all so familiar with from five years prior... it would devastate the morale of the northern Earth Kingdom. As they sprinted, they approached a small opening in the trees above. Jet's feet planted themselves, his face rising in horror to the sky ahead.

Smoke. A black pillar of smoke rose from the direction of their target.

"We have to hurry!"


	2. When Decimation Spreads

Lugged down with weapons and sweating from the exhausting run, three children arrived at the outer edge of the forest that cleared into open land around the now-burning town. The trees suddenly went from thin to non-existent, so it was obvious that the townspeople had cleared the land around their town specifically for farming outside their settlement. Inside the wall, flames scattered the streets, countless buildings burning to rubble. The heat cast an orange glow into the sky around the village, in many areas though blocked out by the pluming black smoke intoxicating the air above. The Fire Nation was taking no mercy on this town.

Jet made his orders. "Alright, Bee, wait for us at the first exit point. And _don't_ get caught."

"You got it." She sprinted south along the outer rim of the forest lining.

"Let's go," Jet motioned to Sneers, heading towards the burning town. They could hear the commotion of panicked villagers, crumbling structures, fleeing animals, and all other forms of chaos on the other side of the town's wall. The guards posted at the front of the entrance of the gate were laying there... crisp and sizzling. Sneers headed that direction, but Jet caught him by his arm.

"No! There's not a more obvious way to make our entry than to walk through the main gate." Jet pointed in the opposite direction of the gate, towards the wall. They ran alongside until they could see a taller building on the opposite side to cover them as they climbed over. Sneers began his attempt to ascend, but the wall was too smooth to climb.

"I'll give you a boost," Jet said, knealing down to provide his shoulders as a ladder. "Once you're over shoot a line across and I'll scale up."

Sneers climbed on top of his leader, attempting to keep his balance when Jet stood up. Jet braced himself.

"Here goes," Sneers said, then jumped off his shoulders to try and grab on to the top of the wall. He reached for the top, missing with one hand but grabbing hold with the other. He struggled his way up and dropped down on the other side.

"Can you catch my pack?" Jet called over the wall.

He heard the release of Sneers' bow and glanced up to see an arrow glide over with a rope attached to its tail. Once to the ground he grabbed hold.

"Not if it has my berry bombs in it." Sneers shouted back.

"Alright, ready then?"

"Go for it!"

Jet scaled up the wall, walking vertically along the smooth rock. Once to the top, he sat down on the rim. Hurrying to avoid being seen, he pulled the roped arrow up to himself, took his satchel carefully off his back to avoid provoking the 'berries,' and put the arrow through the shoulder strap, pulling the rope through. Both boys tightened the rope and the satchell slid down gradually to Sneers below. Jet hopped down once the bag was secure.

"Where to?" Sneers asked, throwing his bow over his shoulder and putting a hand on the sword belted to his waist. Jet backed up to the building that had been providing them cover and peeked around its corner. He looked around, searching for soldiers.

"This area's clear. Follow me."

They rounded the corner and began running down the street. "You check that side, I got this one." Jet said as they split up. He swerved off when he approached the first house on his right. Fire was encroaching from the top, but no screams were heard from within. Jet burst through the door, fire scattered all around. He ran through, calling out for anyone to see if there were any survivors. Amongst the crackling wood and loudness of the flames, he finally heard something: the wails of a young girl. He ran upstairs and found her standing on her bed to avoid the flames encroaching her room.

"Help me, please!" she sobbed through her gasps for air. Jet leapt across a patch of flames towards the little girl and reached out his arm.

"Come with me, I'll get you out of here!"

She latched onto him quickly, scared of her fate but trusting the boy.

"Is anyone else in the house?" Jet asked.

"They took Mommy," she cried.

"Is your dad here?"

"No," she wept in her high pitched voice. Jet flew down the stairs and out the front door. He took the girl back to the part of the wall they had climbed over and placed her down.

"I need you to listen to me, okay?" Jet rushed through his words as he kept glancing back to ensure they weren't followed. "I'm going to keep you safe, but you have to stay right here while I go see if your neighbors are okay, you got it?"

The girl nodded with a frown, tears streaming down her face. Jet stood up and ran back towards the house, passing Sneers leading a group of three survivors to the same place. They nodded in determination as they ran by each other.

When Jet got to the second house he could hear cries coming from inside for help. He burst through the door only to be blasted with a facefull of smoke. Coughing his way through, he called out for the survivor, "Where are you?!"

"By the stairs! Please, help!" An older voice pleaded. Jet ran over to find a rather elderly man trapped under the collapsed staircase. He began removing debris from on top of the man.

"Thank you, thank you!" the man thanked as Jet hurried.

"Don't thank me yet." He grabbed the man's arm with one hand and reached around his torso with the other. "Here we go..."

The man grunted heavily and hesitated. "I think my leg is broken."

"We have to get out of here now, come on." He lifted the man up and assisted him out of the house, then lugged him down the street to meet the others. Sneers had already come back with a second group, making a total of six suvivors total.

"Alright," Jet ordered to the group, "We're leaving the town, let's move." He handed the injured man off to two other survivors, taking the lead and preparing to defend the group if necessary. Sneers pulled out a dagger and handed it to one of the survivors, another young man who could assist if they were caught. They hurried alongside the wall, Jet glancing up to the top every now and then. Fruther and further they ran until finally, a blue cloth hung over the edge of the wall caught Jet's eye.

He whistled a call to the other side and the blue cloth was yanked back. Quickly, a rope flew over to the surviving group. The villagers began ascending the wall one by one, first the little girl who struggled her way up, nearly slipping a couple of times, but managed to maneuver her way up. The man with the broken leg came next. They tied a large circle in the rope which he sat on, and when the signal was given, the girls attempted to lift him over. Smellerbee pulled with much vigor, but the old man was heavy. Her biceps quivered and her face faded into a deep red, but she pulled nonetheless. Short and stick-thin she was, but living as a warrior had strengthened both her body and her ego. Through much turmoil, she managed to pull him to the top. He swayed his good leg over, then prepared to do the excrutiating.

Just five minutes later, all but one of the survivors had hopped over. The last one, the young man who had been given the dagger, remained.

"Wait," Sneers barked before he scaled up. He was older than both of them, but still in his mid teenage years. "Can you help us? There's plenty more to be rescued."

Off to the side, Jet tightened up the bag on his back. The new guy seemed confused and undecided. "Yes, or no?!" Jet demanded, rushed and stressed.

Confusingly, he nodded, pulling out his blade. As Jet whistled, the rope was almost simultaneously pulled over to the ouside of the wall and the survivors fled to the rendezvous point.

Sneers turned back towards the burning village. "Round 2," he smirked, rushing into the inferno once again with his leader and their new assistant.

* * *

On the other side of the wall, the five survivors were grouped together. Two of them grabbed hold of the older man from both sides, helping him keep pressure off his leg.

"Alright, let's move," Smellerbee waved her arm motioning them to follow her. Before she could take off though, the older gentleman interjected from between his two helpers.

"Why would we want to follow a little girl like you?" He mustered. Smellerbee could sense the demeaning attitude in his words, too stubborn to accept help from a young child. She fumed and marched up to the man.

"Whether or not you like my age or gender doesn't matter to me, but if you want to get out of this situation safely, you'll do _exactly_ what I say. And that starts with giving due respect to the people who just arrived to _save your life._ We may be small, but _don't_ underestimate us." She poked his chest on the word _don't_.

"Now let's move." She dramatized each word.

The group exchanged nervous looks, then complied, following the young girl. She certainly was small, but she was rugged and rough. It was obvious she was no ordinary clueless princess.

Further and further they fled into the thick woods, avoiding loud noises (but unsuccessful at such, nonetheless). Their destination was about three quarters of a mile away, but with a half-lame man trudging along it was no quick jog. Smellerbee stopped for a moment to let the back part of the group catch up.

"We need to stay together!" she declared, rather loudly. She didn't realize, however, that her call was a critical mistake.

"That way!" an unknown voice was heard in the distance.

"We're being followed!" gasped a woman in the group.

"What are we going to do?" Another villager cried.

"That way," Smellerbee pointed, even though every direction appeared the same. "Run!"

The group hurried away, Smellerbee bringing up the rear. She turned, though, when she heard their pursuers gaining on them. She quickly ascended up a nearby tree to wait as the rest of the group hurried ahead. Sure enough, less than a minute later two Fire Nation soldiers broke through a bush and walked into the open.

"I don't hear them," one said to the other. Smellerbee was laying on a thick limb above them which extended almost directly horizontal from the tree. She drew a knife and grabbed hold of the branch she was clinging too, then slid off the limb with one hand remaining on the branch to keep her hovering above the soldiers. She waited for them to move right within her target area, and as soon as they did, she discharged her knife straight for the back of the closest soldier's neck: the weakest point of their armor.

The soldier fell, immediately killed. The one in front turned around quickly, but failed to look up since his attacker was so high in the trees. He looked around, assuming a firebending stance. With one dagger left, she couldn't miss. She waited for him to turn the other way, but her grip was slipping with only one hand to hold herself up.

_'Hurry up, just run away,'_ she thought to herself. Knowing she had to do something, she put her second dagger in her mouth, readjusted her grip, then reached into her pocket for something. She pulled out what was left of a stone she had been using to sharpen her daggers during her wait for the first wave of survivors. She chunked it directly away from her, creating a subtle ruckus just enough for the soldier to whip around. She quickly grabbed her knife and propelled it straight into his neck.

_Thud._ She hopped down from the tree and ran towards her victims, retrieving her daggers and patting them for any gold or other useful items she could find. She piled the bodies at the base of a tree and rushed on to meet up with her group. Every so often along the way she would let her dagger slide into the trunk of a tree, leaving a trail she could follow back to strip the bodies of all the material she could scavenge that she was unable to carry at the time being.

After rushing after the trail they had left, she finally heard her group. She called out for them, steering them to the right.

"We're almost there, just a little further."

The group followed her, clueless as to where they were but trusting that the girl knew what she was doing. Sure enough, they arrived, though they didn't know such. Smellerbee stopped and raised her hand, signaling for the others to do the same.

"What are we stopping for? We're not safe!" cried a woman.

Smellerbee began climbing a tree close to the group.

"What are you doing?" Another survivor asked, becoming put out with Smellerbee's lack of communication. Smellerbee stopped and reached around and up the trunk, then pulled out a disguised rope that blended in with the bark of the tree. She clung to it and swung down to the forest floor.

"Here, hang on tight," she said, handing it to a woman in the group. When she latched on, some sort of remarkable system pullied her up through the air and into the thick layer of leaves. When she got to the top she found a decent sized platform at the top with the number 15 written across the entire base.

"Lower the rope back down!" Smellerbee called up. The woman obeyed, slowly pushing the rope down against the tension of the system. Back down at the forest floor, Smellerbee addressed the rest of the group.

"We have a small hidden platform up there. Go up, sit still, be quiet, and wait for us to finish getting people out. I'll be back with more survivors." The group nodded and thanked her as the rope reached it's full extension. Back up top, the woman heard the device click, then stepped back, and sure enough, a second click yanked up survivor number two.

Smellerbee scurried away.

* * *

Back in the town, smoke poured into the midday sky. Jet, Sneers, and their new companion had gathered a group of eleven survivors by the wall this time. It was time to hop the wall, and they were in position, but Smellerbee had not arrived yet.

"Jet, if we don't get these people out now the soldiers are going to find them," Sneers reasoned. Jet was wanting to go back for another group.

"Smellerbee isn't here yet," Jet objected.

"Well we have to do something, there are soldiers lurking everywhere!"

Jet grunted, frustrated. He was rushing through ideas when a blue cloth flew over the wall.

"Perfect timing," Sneers remarked with the release of a roped arrow sent over the wall. "Everyone up and over; there will be a girl on the other side ready to lead you to safety."

And off the boys went again. It was going to be a long day.


	3. When Forces Unite

The sun had made its round through the sky, baking the town and infuriating the flames all day. The Fire Nation was moving out, and the few buildings left would be ashes soon enough from the remaining flames. For this town, their fate was sealed a month prior when a Fire Nation messenger had arrived to deliver a letter to the town's leader: a demand for submission. Thinking that they would be prepared for an attack, the village stood firm in their allegiance and refused to submit to Fire Nation rule. Little did they know how quickly the Fire Nation would burn their settlement to the ground.

As the sun prepared to sink into the horizon, the last of the troops exited the city, leaving the flames to take care of the rest and knowing there was no hope for anyone left. Jet and company had a group of eight more survivors with them and had gathered together to regroup. Two buildings remained unchecked, one of which they had been using for cover and another which was a simple, small house.

"Jet! The town is clear, no Fire Nation left." Sneers pointed out.

"Good, one house left," Jet pointed with a sword, wiping blood off his face with his other hand. He had a nasty gash on his cheek. The group as a whole hurried toward the house. It was in terrible condition, engulfed in flames, but as they drew closer and closer they could hear the cries of help from a woman inside. The flames had already taken over the front door, and sure enough as Jet looked for an opening the entire right side of the house collapsed. The woman screamed in terror, but must have been in the still-standing segment of the house.

Jet ran around the left side and busted through a window, flames quickly encroaching. Sneers ran up behind him.

"Don't die." He stared at his leader as he rushed into the abyss of flames. Dust rose from the floor, smoke from the flames; it was intoxicating. The house was very open and spacious, and he could see to the back wall straight across, despite blurred by smoke. That's when he spotted the woman screaming for help. She was trapped with her crying child beneath a fallen pillar. The second pillar, and the only one holding up the roof above her, started crackling.

"Take my baby!" She screamed, knowing she would be unable to escape. He rushed to her side as she handed him the child.

"I'm coming back for you!"

"Keep him safe!" She cried through her tremendous pain.

"You're not going to die!" Jet shouted as he ran back towards the window. "Sneers!" He screamed as loud as his vocals would carry. Sneers crawled through the window and ran to meet him. Jet extended his arms to hand him the child when Sneers jerked his hand to cover his mouth, his eyes fixating on the scene behind Jet and his face contorting in horror.

The pillar crackled one final time, snapping apart in one rapid motion and causing the back half of the house to crater on the woman. Jet spun around, mortified, and only moments later, her screams ceased.

"We have to get out of here!" Sneers said crawling out the window. The ceiling was gradually falling down and working it's way towards Jet and the child. He sprinted to the window, handing the child out to Sneers and diving through in time. It wasn't minutes later and the house was flattened.

Every survivor stood speechless. Nothing could have prepared them for what they had just witnessed. The Fire Nation once again proved their terror.

Sneers walked up behind Jet and put his hand on his shoulder. "We should go, you did everything you could."

"I promised she would be okay," Jet moaned. Sneers came around to look him in the eyes.

"You tried."

* * *

Streaming moonlight broke through the leaves in patches across the faces of the survivors as they waited silently in the trees of the forest. Some had been there for hours, simply waiting in silence as ordered. Smellerbee was among them, keeping watch over the dark path below. Roughly forty survivors had ascended the tree at the rendezvous point over the course of the day. The platform was not big enough to hold all of them so they had spread out through the tree, unwilling to come down until given the all-clear... fearful that the troops could find them, some for the second time.

The survivors had been warned to be quiet; under normal circumstances, though, a group of forty people in a tree would be most chaotic, even under direct commands for silence. Fear is a powerful emotion, though, and the survivors made not even a slight sound. The air was filled with chirping crickets, the wind through the trees, and the occasional sound of a nocturnal creature below them; but no noise from the surviving civilians.

They waited well into the evening, when finally, Smellerbee stood up. She heard a distinct bird call coming from below. Heads turned toward the sound, and then the group's silence was broken.

"Alright," Smellerbee announced to the group, shouting across the tree, "everybody down!" She grabbed onto the rope and swung to the ground. Jet, Sneers, and nine survivors were below.

"You're sure you weren't followed?" questioned Smellerbee.

"Positive; they headed north." Sneers answered.

"So what are we going to do with all these people?" She turned to Jet. "They can't just show up in a town controlled by the Fire Nation, and they just burnt down the last remaining Earth Kingdom hold in the area."

"I'm not entirely sure yet," Jet responded, uncertain. "We can make camp here for the night and get started doing... _something_ with all these people in the morning."

Sneers butted in. "We could probably get a couple of them into Hekou if we head north, but no more than two or three."

"That's great and all, but we've got fifty people here. What do you suggest we do with the other forty-eight?" Smellerbee snarked back.

Jet took the lead. "The only options we have are to slowly bring all of them into Hekou or to march them south to General Fong's base to have them dispersed. What do you guy think is best?"

"We could ask the people what they want. It _is_ their fate." Smellerbee reasoned, taking pity on the survivors.

"They're not in the best mindset right now, Bee," Sneers kindly retorted. "'Sides, we could use some help around these parts."

Jet cocked and eyebrow. "You think we should bring them to the hideout?"

"And slowly sneak them into town over the next few months."

The other two pondered the idea as the remaining villagers descended from the trees above. After consideration, Jet looked up.

"Any objections?" He asked as he fixated on Smellerbee.

"We'll just have to make sure they don't rat us out." She reluctantly stated.

"We just saved their lives, Bee," Sneers interjected. "And before their town was burnt to the ground, they were too stubborn to submit to the Fire Nation. I doubt there's a single one of them that would give up information on the location of the _last Fire Nation resistance movement _in the area."

Smellerbee nodded, admitting he was right. "True. I guess that's the plan then?"

"Listen up everybody," Jet shouted out to get the group's attention. Who would have ever thought that this thirteen year old boy could do so much? "We'll be making camp here for tonight. Tomorrow morning we go north towards Hekou; we have a base outside the town, and over time we'll work on getting you all in there. For now, though, let's get a good fire going. If anyone knows how to hunt, let's get a small group together to go out and gather some food. It's been a long day, you all need to keep your strength up."

A gentleman in the crowd stood up. "Excuse me young sir; I appreciate you saving us from the attack and all," he changed his view from Jet to the group as a whole, "but I'm wondering how wise it is to follow directions from a little kid like this."

Jet wasn't about to engage this ageist in his pathetic attempt to overthrow Jet's leadership role, which he played well. He knew the priority was not in shutting the man down, but rather in handling the situation in a way that all the others would _want_ to fall in line. After all, if they chose to split themselves off from Jet, there wouldn't be much hope for them getting around. They had no idea where they were, they had no idea where they could go, and they had no way of implementing Jet's plan without him.

Jet extended his arms in both directions. "If you don't want to take orders from me, you're welcome to walk away whenever you would like. Otherwise, please don't question my judgment after I just rescued you all from being burried beneath burning buildings."

Jet looked around as the admiring faces thanked him with looks of sincerity. Lost family members, personal injuries, and all other witnessed horrors of the day caused the survivors to be in such a raw state of mind and body that they couldn't function for themselves; they just needed someone to tell them what to do. (With the exception of a few like the questioning man, who, after inwardly reasoning, finally sat down, accepting the leadership of the young boy.)

"In the morning, we'll eat what the hunting group catches tonight, then we move out."

* * *

The night was long, dark, and noisy from the surrounding rustling of the forest life. Through gaps in the treetops, they could see a slight gradient in the sky fading to orange the closer it was to the village they had fled. Everyone had found a good spot to rest their head, but there was little sleep. Sobs filled the night sky as memories of the day haunted every individual.

Jet didn't even try sleeping that night. Instead he tended to the wounds of the injured, encouraged those who sat alone to weep, brought water to the thirsty, and simply did what a leader does: serve. After many hours of doing what he could, he noticed a distinct difference in the smell of the air as morning approached. He began to pack his belongings, stuffing various items in his pack: ropes, sheathed daggers, a compass, and even a few packs of food. The sun was getting closer and closer to rounding the horizon, but had not broken the plain yet. The sky slowly began to illuminate orange.

"So you're the young resistance, eh?" A semi-familiar voice broke Jet's concentration on his task. He looked up to see the young man who had helped them in the city to evacuate the civilians.

"The what?" Jet smiled and scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

"The young resistance! You guys are the ones that take out all the traveling Fire Nation military supplies in the forest!"

"Um... yeah, but how did you know that was-"

"Everyone knows about you!" The teen cut Jet off. "Rumor has it that if you even dare to wear red when you walk into the forest, you'll be abducted... or worse, by the young resistance. They're stealthy, and you never see them coming; then, just when you think you're safe, BAM! They strike. If you somehow manage to survive or get away, you'll never catch a glance of them, and they never leave a trail. They're like the ghosts of the forest, and the only people to see them and live are Earth Kingdom travelers from time to time."

"So they named us?" Jet inquired, almost laughing at the ridiculousness.

"Yes! The Young Resistance!" The boy chirped.

Jet just laughed and continued his work. "Not sure I like the name, but whatever..."

"So do you guys live out here?" He looked around the trees. Jet looked up at him.

"Yeah, we have a hideout southeast of Hekou. It'll be crammed, and some people will have to be on the ground for a little while, but working together we could expand it to temporarily house everyone until we can gradually get them into Hekou."

"Sounds like a plan. Hey," he paused, his tone becoming more serious. "Thanks for asking me to help by the way. You know... back there." The boy's face saddened. "I felt like I needed to do _something_, but I was so frozen by the shock of it all that I needed a nudge in the right direction. So thanks."

Jet stared at the other older kid for a moment, then tossed him a sword. "We all need help from someone else at some point." Jet stood up, putting his bag on his back. "I'd appreciate some more help if you don't mind. Just to have another on watch, ya know."

"Sure! Happy to help. One more thing, by the way, uh..." he struggled for a name.

"Jet."

"Jet." The boy turned his head to look at something in the distance. "Do you think you could talk to him?" He motioned towards another young boy in the distance. The child sat hugging his knees and not moving a muscle, almost in a catatonic state. "It's my brother... he won't respond to me, he won't eat, he won't drink, nothing."

"And you think I'll be able to change that?" Jet asked, confused.

"Well maybe. You are the one who saved him after all."

"Well... I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks so much." He turned to walk away, but caught himself and turned back. "I'm Bao by the way."

"Bao. Good to meet you officially." The two shook hands and parted ways, then Jet headed over to the brother. By this time, the sun had broken the horizon and was shining through the trees. The bright light of the morning shined upon the brother's face. Jet silently came up beside him and sat down right next to the boy.

"You lost a lot. Didn't you?"

He didn't move. Jet stared out at the forest to where the boy's gaze was set, looking for glimmers of sunlight through the patches of trees.

"I'm sorry." Jet turned back to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. "But I think you can get through this. I think you can rise above it."

The kid continued ignoring Jet's efforts.

"Listen... I know you've been through a lot, and I understand you need time. But if you need anything: food, clothes, water, medicine; just let me know. For now, though, we are packing up and need to move out. And I need you to get up and come with us."

Jet kept his gaze fixed on the boy, hoping for some sort of response. Sure enough, after a long pause, the boy finally turned his head and made eye contact with Jet.

"Let's go, alright?" Jet's compassion dripped from his words. He understood what this kid was going through.

The boy didn't speak, but dropped his eyes and began to rise from his spot. The two of them began walking back to the group, along-the-way Jet putting his arm around the boy. A few dozen steps later, Jet addressed the full group.

"Alright, we leave in fifteen minutes! Have all your stuff packed and ready, it's not a short walk." The young boy walked through the chaos once the scurry for supplies ensued. Bao saw that he had got up and let his mouth fall agape, then ran up to Jet.

"What'd you do?!"

"I just talked to him."

"Did he say anything?"

"No."

"Course not..." Bao mumbled to himself, "whenever he opens his mouth someone else dies." Jet was almost unable to make it out. "Whatever," he perked up. "Let's just get a move on."

* * *

That afternoon, as the group followed the trail back towards Hekou, Jet and Bao walked side by side in silence. The mood was somber, Bao's last words ringing through Jet's head.

_'Whenever he opens his mouth someone else dies.'_

He had said it with almost a flicker of bitterness in his tone, and his eyes had become so serious. Jet couldn't stand it anymore.

"Bao."

"Yeah?" Perked the chipper young man, looking over to face the leader with optimism.

"What did you mean?" Jet brought a serious look to Bao's face.

"By wha-"

"You know by what."

Bao sighed. "Our little sister died a year and a half ago." He quickly opened up. "It was rough. Bao went all depressed like this and didn't talk for months."

"Okay? I don't understan-"

"Then six months later he finally decides to say something. It shocked all of us when he did. And he was just asking dad a stupid question. A week later, dad died of a heart attack." Jet's face contorted in sympathy. "After that he refused to talk. Didn't say a word because he believed he was cursed somehow. He never says _anything_... and then the day before yesterday, sure enough. He told Mom that he thinks it's time for him to move on."

"Did they kill her?" Jet asked, quietly.

Bao's face fell. "Yeah. Yeah they did."

The two walked on silently, sadness looming over Bao. Jet's sympathy reached out to his new friend, because he understood what Bao was going through. And now, not only did he not have a home, but he didn't have a family. After a few minutes, Jet broke the silence.

"The Fire Nation killed my parents too. Five years ago they raided my village and burned it down, just like this one."

"Is that when you started the Young Resistance?"

Jet laughed. "Stop calling us that, we don't have a name."

"Well you should get one!" The laughing settled back down and they resumed in their seriousness; joy was only a fleeting thought on this day.

"We lived Hekou for two years after our town was burned down. Me and Sneers. That's where we met Smellerbee."

"And then the Fire Nation came in?"

"Yeah. And we refused to live in submission to such filth, so we've been causing trouble for them ever since we moved out."

Bao smiled. "That's, what, three years of messing with the Fire Nation?" Jet nodded. "That's impressive. I don't know how you do it."

"We didn't have much of a choice. We had nowhere left to go. No one to go back to. And we all _hated_ the Fire Nation. So we just made our own little campground in the trees and have been here ever since."

Bao looked to be deep in thought. These people enthralled him as they lived out his dream for an action-pack and adventurous life. And here he was, assisting them.

"Do you think..." he looked over at Jet, who was staring at him was a knowing smile. "...what?" He stopped.

"You want to join us, don't you?" Jet asked, stopping in his tracks. Bao smiled, caught before he could ask the question, and let out a nervous laugh. Jet laughed it off, shaking his head in an almost mocking way and walked on. Bao's face fell as he watched Jet move forward.

"Does that mean n-"

"Your bedroom's right above you!" Jet cut him off loudly and with enthusiasm.

Bao looked up, confused. He saw nothing, but sure enough, through the layer of leaves was their hideout. Bao looked back down as Jet approached him with hand extended.

"Welcome aboard, Bao!"


	4. When Heroes Rise

- Hekou; Four Months Later -

The town was quiet and the moon was hidden in the cloud-painted sky. The constant rain drenched the buildings and kept the few villagers who were awake inside. The streets were nearly empty aside from the seldom Fire Nation guard patrolling. They had it easy tonight... or so they thought.

Six dark figures hopped the wall and dashed into the shadows. The wall had a Fire Nation flagged draped over every engraved Earth Kingdom insignia: captured long ago. The patrol was nowhere near, so they moved swiftly across the street and closer to the center of the city. After crossing a few yards and blocks, they arrived at a house with a blue cloth hanging out the back window. The six stealthily maneuvered to the back porch.

Inside, an old woman laid in her bed, trying to sleep. The distracting rain beat down on her house, keeping her evening somewhat restless. In and out of sleep, she finally rolled over on her side to comfort herself when she heard banging on her back door: loud but quick. Her eyes widened. Her room became illuminated by the faint glow of an orange lamp she lit, then she hurried downstairs. Before she came to the back door she checked her window, and sure enough the blue cloth had been knotted and placed back in its place. It was all part of their critical communication. She swung the door open quickly.

She whispered. "Come in; towels in the closet. Grab one and go upstairs, quickly."

Three of the group hurried inside, three remaining on the porch.

"Jet, you weren't supposed to come for another two days!" The woman snapped, quietly.

"Put out the light, Sana." Jet put his hand around the flame and extinguished it. "I'm sorry, we had a change of plans. These are the last of them though; just a little longer, then we don't have to keep doing this anymore."

Sana smiled and relaxed her face. She lifted a hand up and put it on Jet's cheek. "You're such a leader, Jet, and I'm proud of you. Never stop what you're doing." After a moment, she turned to the others too. "And I'm proud of you two as well. You all are like children to me... and I'll miss you."

"This won't be the last time, Aunt Sana." Smellerbee piped in from the background.

"I'm sure it won't," Sana said with a smile. She then snapped out of her adoring mood and looked around, tasks flowing into her head.

"Alright, now get a move on! We shouldn't be out like this. It'd be bad enough for them to see me out, but if they saw you we'd never hear the end of it!" She grabbed the door and began to pull it closed. "Good luck to all of you!" She cracked a smile through the small opening left in the door, then slid it closed.

Jet and Smellerbee turned and ran, the third standing and staring at the closed door as if he wasn't through yet, despite having not said a word.

"Bao, let's move!" Smellerbee said, turning back but still running. He snapped out of it, nodded, and followed in suit.

* * *

- The Next Morning -

The sun finally rose, lighting up the campsite in the trees. In the past four months their fort had expanded to become nearly five times the size it was before. It had been the hiding place for many survivors from the recently destroyed village. Now, though, it housed more than the original three inhabitants, but less than all the villagers who had once congregated there.

Jet sat at the main table which was still on the central platform cannecting all the other bases. The entire central area had expanded to engulf the nearest rooms, those rooms getting rebuilt further away. Everything had expanded, gotten bigger, and even been added too. There were many new rooms, but most left empty of inhabitants and filled with supplies at this point. The stock rooms were piled to the brim.

As Jet shook off the last grip of slumber at the central table, he marked on a scroll through three names left on a list of four dozen or so. He was the only one up, the sun just beginning to rise. He liked being the first to awaken, being the leader of... whatever this resistance group was. It just seemed right to him.

Suddenly, a young girl's voice interrupted his silence. "That's all of them, huh?" Jet looked up and smiled at his friend, Smellerbee.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's all of them." Jet took a sigh of relief. "I can't believe we finally did it."

"Back when they burned down the village, you said we would keep all those people here until we could smuggle them into Hekou, despite the fact that the Fire Nation ruled the town. I thought you were absolutely insane. All those people here; I thought it'd be so chaotic." She sat down.

"Well... you were kind of right." Jet laughed.

"Yeah, but we managed. I thought it would totally split us up though." Smellerbee avoided eye contact, uncomfortable about being serious outside of high-pressure situations.

"I think it's made us a stronger team. And heh, look," Jet laughed and motioned to the stockpile room on the far side of the hideout from them, "we got some new recruits out of the deal."

Across the way Bao was assisting his younger brother roll a new arrival of barrels, obviously captured from the Fire Nation.

"You think that kid's okay, though?" Smellerbee asked, concerned.

"Bao's brother? Yeah, I think he's fine. He just doesn't like to talk..."

"Jet!" A voice new to the morning rang through the morning trees, happy. Sneers walked up behind him. "I was so worried about you I had a hard time sleeping last night! Glad you made it back in one piece. Sorry I couldn't make it." He tapped his casted leg with a crutch.

"Don't worry about it, Sneers. Bao's been really proving himself lately." Jet turned to open up his discussion with Smellerbee to Sneers as well, who plopped down next to them with a bowl of some sort of horrendous breakfast concoction.

"What on earth is that?" Smellerbee asked, disgusted and fanning her face to escape the smell.

"Pipsqueak made it. It's actually not bad!" Sneers perked.

"That's the big guy, right?" Smellerbee was met by a blank look of disappointment from Sneers. "Sorry! There's a lot of new names to keep track of!" she jumped.

"There's only three!" Sneers argued.

"I'm bad with names, okay!"

Jet just laughed as the two of them bickered. In addition to Bao and his silent brother joining them when the village burned down four months prior, throughout their adventures smuggling survivors from that village into Hekou north of their hideout they managed to find three more youngsters looking for a life of action and fighting against the Fire Nation. Their group had somewhat quickly gone from three small members to eight, and now with even stronger secret alliances and trustful relationships in Hekou.

Their bickering eventually settled down when Sneers shoved Smellerbee's head with a laugh as he got up and walked off.

"It _is_ pretty different... having nearly tripled in the last three months. It's almost intimidating." Jet opened up.

"Intimidating? Why would you be intimidated of a few more people?" Smellerbee was confused.

"When it was just us and Sneers, I was the leader and I felt like that was how things were meant to be. But now we've got five new people, and-"

"And they respect you, Jet," She interrupted. "You _are_ the leader and they know that and want it."

"I'm not so sure about that..."

"What, do you think they're gonna start a coup and throw you out of your own hideout?" Smellerbee's discouragement was turning into annoyance.

"I don't know, okay," Jet closed his eyes, shaking his head in frustration. "I just... I don't feel like there's any order or stability here. I could select a mission and if most of the new guys aren't for it they could just say, 'screw you,' and leave."

"So let them leave!" Smellerbee bounced.

"Then we've got people who are out there, know our secrets, and who we aren't on the best terms with." Jet sighed. "I guess it boils down to the fact that I don't think they trust me."

Smellerbee sat deep in thought for a few moments. "_They_ don't trust _you_?"

"I don't know," Jet reeled back.

"See, no. I think it boils down to the fact that you don't trust them. You have to trust _that they trust you_."

Jet ruffled his brow, thinking through her words. "Yeah... I guess so."

"So what do we do about that?" Smellerbee tried to make eye contact.

"Huh?" Jet turned, puzzled. "There's nothing we can do, time will just have to do its thing."

"Wrong!" She boasted, standing up and stretching with a smile on her face. Out came her energetic side. She called out to the entire camp. "Alright everyone, finish what you're doing! Big meeting at the center table in ten minutes!"

"What are you doing?" Jet whispered, looking around.

"We're gonna fix your problem." Smellerbee crossed her arms with a smirk. She walked off to the table, preparing to do who knows what, leaving Jet to only sit and wait for the next ten minutes, deep in panic over what was coming. What if she bulldozed over the whole group setting him up as a tyrannical leader? They would all hate him! What if she undermined his authority and called for a new leader, or worse!, asserted herself as the new one! His mind wandered, uncertain of so many things, and then the time came.

"Alright, everyone, gather round!" she ordered. Jet reluctantly rose and took his seat at the table.

"What's this about, Bee?" Began Sneers as the last of the eight finally arrived.

"Look around! We're becoming more and more of a threat to our enemies, aren't we?" She was met with a diluted, rather unenthusiastic applaud.

"Over the past ten weeks we've taken out six full cargo caravans traveling in and out of Hekou." The group's murmuring enlivened a bit, proud of their accomplishment. Two in the group exchanged a high five.

"In the process we have proven Hekou to be one of the most expensive colonies to upkeep. More than half of their inbound shipments become unaccounted for when dispatched to Hekou. Meanwhile, inside the village, we've managed to make connections all over to assist in our missions when needed." As the excitement grew, even Bao's silent brother cracked a smile when his older sibling latched his shoulders and gently shook him with a laugh of happiness.

"Over the past four months we've managed to successfully smuggle fifty survivors of the Fire Nation's latest destruction into the town without the enemy catching on to the population boost and without being caught ourselves." At this, even Jet smiled and began clapping.

"All around the Western Earth Kingdom they tell stories about the ghosts of the forest that no Fire Nation loyalist dares to step into. They swoop down and destroy the enemy, and before you know it, they vanish. That's _us_. And we are legendary." The group had become ecstatic, cheering in youthfulness.

"There are many names for us. Some just call us the ghosts of the forest. Others call us little fighters. The enemy calls us the child savages. And most common, we're known as the Young Resistance. But to the outside world, even though there's rumors of this and that, our entire purpose is sloppy, and no one really understands clearly what we're about. And that's because it's true. Something needs to change around these parts." The group quieted, Smellerbee's seriousness setting in.

"We have no officialness about us. Nothing is set in stone and we don't have a clear direction. Jet calls the shots most of them time, but otherwise we have no order. We need to do some officialization."

"What are you getting at, Bee?" Sneers interjected, raising an eyebrow curiously.

"A complete overhaul of what little order we have, and an establishment of structure, order, and design. And the best way to do this fairly is to let everyone have their say and their vote."

The group exchanged looks all around, seeming to agree; but Jet... Jet's breathing hastened and shallowed, nervous as to what could come of this. He could stop it if he wanted to by bulldoinge right over her, but if the group itself had the will to revolt against him, their perfect opportunity would be presented to them if he objected here. After a moment, Smellerbee picked back up.

"Alright, so let's start with the obvious. We need a leader!" The murmuring quieted. "We all know that Jet's been our leader since the beginning, but we're writing things in stone now. No one is obligated to vote for Jet, and if you would prefer someone else to take the lead, let it be known now. Thoughts?"

Discussion began amongst the eight, some asking Jet if he is still certain of his calling, others looking around. Sneers, though, sat quietly to himself in deep thought. His countenance was confused, almost hurt, but no one could tell what was going on inside his head. The discussion was interrupted by a little boy's voice.

"I nominate Jet!"

"I'm with The Duke," Bao added. "Jet's gotten us this far; I think at some point or another we've all been saved by his skills in decision making. I know I owe him my life, and I can't think of a better leader."

"We all owe our lives to everyone here," Sneers interrupted the peace. He was downcast: not angry, but slightly leaning towards it. "Jet is a great leader and has been ever since I've known him, but at the same time you can't discredit everyone else. I know both Smellerbee and I have saved your life as well, and you have saved ours. Considering what we do, it's a common occurrence to be in a life-threatening situation, and we help each other out."

"Are you making a second nomination, then?" Pipsqueak's deep voice cut to the point.

Sneers half-winced as he looked down, silent. His mind raced through so many emotions at the moment. It wasn't that he didn't like or trust Jet. And it wasn't even that he didn't want Jet as their leader. He couldn't really identify his own emotions about the situation, he just knew that he felt that something was off for some unidentifiable reason. Sneers looked up slowly to try to answer, nervous.

"I... The leadership position is not for me. I'm just not sure that any single one of us is cut out for-"

Jet slammed his hands down on the table loudly and stood up, startling Sneers and cutting him off. All heads whipped around to him. He spoke calmly, but with boldness.

"I nominate Sneers."

Silence surrounded the table, everyone staring at Jet as he sat back down and Sneers' mouth somewhat agape.

"Why..." Sneers began, almost in a whisper.

"You don't want to be the leader, Jet?" The Duke piped up quickly.

Jet's somber face remained monotonous through his words. "I don't want everyone here submitting to my leadership because it's 'custom' or because they're afraid of me. I'm not a tyrant, and no one was willing to break the ice of an alternate nomination. So my vote remains with Sneers." He sat down, leaving the group to the rest of the decision. After a moment, Smellerbee took control once more, knowing they had to get somewhere with this decision.

"Alright, so to avoid any issues we'll have a written vote." She said as she tore off some pieces of paper and passed them around. "Unless there are any more nominations, just write who you cast your vote for. I'll call them out once they're all passed in, and the majority rules. Can we agree on that?" All heads nodded, some slowly and thoughtfully, others eager and excited.

The group sat, deep in thought over what had been said. The Duke passed his in quickly and with a smile, giddy and filled with the excitement of youth. After a minute or two, all had been passed in and Smellerbee stood up. A serious tone came over the group as the time came for their leader to be either reaffirmed or overthrown.

All eyes fixated on Smellerbee as she climbed up on the table and opened the first folded piece of paper. She laid eyes on it and her face softened ever so slightly.

"Jet."

The Duke fist-pumped with a hissing, "yes!" until he caught the eye of Sneers, whose serious face was glaring at him. The cold stare was broken though when Sneers smirked and laughed at his silliness. Sneers knew that he wasn't going to make it to the leader role, and he held no grudge against people choosing Jet over him.

"Jet."

Jet's countenance was lightening. Two down, only three more to clench his role. But it was more than just making it in. Jet wanted full approval and unanimity.

"Jet."

Everyone around the table loosened up as they realized they could all relax in agreement. The smiles ceased though at the next vote.

"Sneers."

Jet ruffled his brows, while across the table The Duke's face fell. "What?" He quietly asked himself. Confusion ran across the table in silent awkwardness.

"That was Jet." Pipsqueak comforted. Suddenly it made sense.

"Oh yeah," The Duke relaxed. No one doubted Jet's ability to lead, and frankly at this moment if someone did and made it evident, it would create a most undesirable circumstance.

"Jet."

One more and it was set in stone.

"Jet."

The group cheered and applauded. The Duke climbed up on the table and jumped onto Jet, doing what he could to headlock him, but failing. Pipsqueak came up behind him and gave him a hardy slap on the back, and Bao congratulated him. Jet shook his hand and looked up to see Sneers across the table with a semi-concerned yet blank look, but once they made eye contact he softened to a kind and accepting nod with a smirk. Sneers knew this was best.

"And with the fifth vote, we have a leader!" Smellerbee put the papers in her pocket.

"You're not going to read the rest?" Jet questioned, desiring reassurance.

"There's no need to, you're our leader and that's all we need to know." She pulled her hand out of her pocket from stashing the remaining two votes inside, then moved on to the next topic. "Alright, alright, everyone sit back down. Keep your shirt on, Duke."

"It's _The_-"

"Whatever," she blew him off. The surrounding six laughed at the recurring situation. It had almost become a joke amongst themselves to torture him by leaving of the _'the.'_

She began the following move. "We need to discuss the next topic."

"What would that be?" a most excited Bao asked.

"Let's get a name." Smellerbee smiled. "A name for... this." She motioned to the group, hands extended in both directions.

"We're mostly known as the Young Resistance," started the eighth member of the group. Don't worry-we haven't mentioned him in our story yet, but he's one of them nonetheless. Thin as a twig, too. Anyway...

"Yeah, but that sucks." Bao rebuttled. "That name just rings of defeat. A resistance is a group living under tyranny fighting back against it. The name practically admits that the Fire Nation has defeated us already and we're just doing what we can now. We need something that has a more victorious glow to it."

"He has a good point." Pipsqueak piped in.

"So let's come up with something good." Jet determined, leaning forward to put his elbows on the table and interlace his fingers with one another over his mouth, thinking deeply.

"Any suggestions or direction?" Smellerbee asked him.

"What are we about here?" Jet addressed the group as a whole. "If you could describe our entire purpose, what would you say it is?"

The Duke answered quickly. "To take out as many Fire Nation slugs as we can!"

"That's not our ultimate goal, though." Sneers burst the bubble. "We don't just fight for the sake of fighting. We fight for a reason. We are here to show the Fire Nation that they aren't victorious like they seem to think they are. We are here to show them that even when they don their flags over our walls, they still don't rule us and we aren't the submissive slaves they like to fool themselves into believing we are."

"He's right." Pipsqueak joined. "I think we would all agree that we would die before submitting to the Fire Nation."

"Exactly!" Pinned Sneers. "It's not about defeating the Fire Nation; _we_ can't do that. It's not about saving the town, even though that _is_ a goal. It's not even about getting revenge on the people who have destroyed so many lives, including ours. It's about doing what is most effective in ending this war, and for a small group of young warriors, the best way we can do that is by sending a message across the world. A message of intimidation. We may not be able to take out legions of troops, and we can't join our own nation's military. But we have a huge bonus on our side already: notoriety. In villages across the Earth Kingdom, especially those occupied by the Fire Nation, people tell stories of the Young Resistance. While they do boast about our accomplishments, there's something far greater they talk about when they tell our stories. The focus of the message we give is that we will never give up, and even if the Fire Nation comes in and pretends to own our villages, our forests, our towns, and our land... they'll never succeed because they can never crush what's inside. They can never truly rule over us. We don't fight just to fight. We don't fight to win a war. We fight to show the entire world that the Earth Kingdom is not subject to any Fire Lord. And the fact that that spirit lives inside of us scares the Fire Nation far more than any army ever could. We fight for freedom!" Sneers slammed a fist on the table on the last word with a shout.

The team was speechless, mouths dropped to the floor. Only moments of ear-splitting silence followed, broken almost simultaneously by the applaud and shouts of the group cheering.

"I guess that's it then," Jet smiled calmly, silencing his team. "The Freedom Fighters." He sat back and crossed his arms with a smirk.

"Freedom Fighters, that's awesome!" The Duke jumped.

"Has the perfect ring to it," Bao added. His younger brother smiled in support, remaining silent.

"No objections?" Smellerbee officialized. The silence spoke for itself, so she confirmed. "The Freedom Fighters we are! Pipsqueak, bring in the barrels!"

"What?" Jet questioned, leaning forward confused. Smellerbee just smiled and addressed the rest of the table.

"An event this big calls for a celebration!" She hopped off the table and waltzed over to help bring in the food Bao had gone to grab.

Not ten minutes later the middle platform had transformed into a party central. A record player blared joyful folk music through the trees and he table was stacked with a lavish array of colorful berries, raw meats, eggs, bread, and all varieties of juices. The sounds of laughter and happiness sliced through the rough-cut music.

"Alright, alright," Sneers called out to the scattered partying warriors. "We've gotten through the burning of the last village. Here's to never letting them burn another!" The eight raised their glasses from across the platform.

"And here's to Jet!" Smellerbee added to the toast after the first drink. The glasses were raised once again.

Jet finalized their celebration with a final closing toast. "And here's to the Freedom Fighters... bottoms up!"

"CHEERS!"

* * *

- 7 Hours Later -

Crickets: the only sound traveling through the darkness that reigned over the camp in the trees. Sleep had overtaken all but one of our brave Freedom Fighters; the leader, of course, who sat outside his room poking with a stick at a dying fire. It was held in a monstrous piece of curved metal, almost like a bowl, and lowered into a hole in the platform carved out specifically to fit it. Thoughts were racing through his mind when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to see Smellerbee walking out of her room.

"Bee," he caught her attention. "What are you doing?"

She altered her course and came towards him. "I could ask you the same thing. How are you?"

"What kind of shallow question is that?" Jet blew her off as she sat down, seeing straight through her question.

"I'm serious. You were really disturbed earlier, but at least now you know. They all trust you." The concern in her eyes spoke straight to his soul, but it wasn't helping the uneasiness he had inside.

"You don't know that for sure-"

"I looked at all the votes." She persisted, strong and stubborn, yet somehow caring in the midst of it. "There was only one for Sneers, Jet; everyone wants you as their leader."

"Still, you don't know that."

"What do you mean, 'I don't know that,' of course I do! It's ridiculous to think-"

"No," He stopped her, "I'm saying that not everyone really wants me as their leader!" Jet's tone rose and the remarks got quicker and quicker. The conversation took on a fast pace as the two degraded into bickering back and forth.

"Jet!" Smellerbee topped out the tension, "There was only one vote for Sneers, and that was cast by _you_! I don't understand why you-"

"It wasn't me!" He shouted, silencing her in confusion. Quickly realizing his tone, he sighed, displaying an apology on his face as the anger written on it softened. "I voted for myself. That's why I was concerned when you read that vote..."

Smellerbee's countenance displayed her dismay over the situation. "Oh... I- I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Jet mumbled. "All I know now is that someone on my team doesn't want me as their leader, and that's extremely unsettling."

"Yeah... I know it's probably hard to understand, but whoever did it probably had understandable reasons as to why."

Jet sighed, stood up, and walked into his room. "That's what I'm afraid of."


End file.
